Winter 2012 - 2013 (15)

Retreating in London (2) Sivananda Yoga(20th February 2013)

Swami Vishnudevananda was sent to the West by his Master, Swami Sivananda to spread the ideals of yoga and Vedanta. He founded “Sivananda Yoga Vedanta” in Canada in 1957. The SYV centre in London has been teaching yoga since 1972, and is located in Putney since 1991. Spacious classrooms and a small tea-room are situated behind the shop selling yoga gear, Mahabharata books and literature on yoga, incense and cd’s.

Five Points of Yoga

By closely observing the lifestyles and needs of people in the West, Vishnudevananda synthe-sized the ancient wisdom of yoga into five basic principles that could easily be incorporated into one’s own lifestyle to provide the foundation for healthy living. It is around these five principles that the activities at the Centre are based. Proper Exercise: asanas produce physical benefits, and they are also mental exercises in concentration and meditation. Proper Breathing through pranayama connects the body to the solar plexus, where tremendous potential energy is stored. Proper Relaxation in savasana is a vital part of keeping the body and mind healthy. Proper Diet, vegetarian, is eating with awareness, with positive effects on the body and mind and minimizing the effect on the environment. Positive Thinking and Meditation relieve stress and replenish energy. Meditation is well-known to improve concentration and to bring peace of mind and spiritual strength.

The Centre in East London

The Centre offers yoga classes seven days a week in three levels, plus specialized courses for children, pregnant women and pensioners. About forty teachers are involved. There are three group meditations a week. Advanced students can choose between courses in positive thinking, Vedanta and the Bhagavadgita. Or workshops on subjects like Vedic astrology, cleansing techniques (kriyas), vegetarian cooking. Occasionally, they organise week-ends on Ayurveda, mental health and meditation.

Yoga in the West

The “Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre” being an international non-profit organization, you can even take part in a retreat or yoga holidays in Dorset, in the Loire valley in France or in the Austrian mountains. There can be no doubt about the fact that yoga and Vedanta constitute priceless gifts from India to the world, which are enriching peoples’ lives in many ways. There is, however, an element that puzzles me. All the books, the courses and practices seem to be directly imported and relate to the ancient Indian culture exclusively. Where’s the interaction with the actual surrounding culture participants are living in? I see mainly Western participants, and whatever their origin, people attending classes and courses at this centre in East London... live in the West.

Yoga for the West?

On my way to an excellent yoga class, I saw the cute little temple at the back of the centre, where Brahmin priests occasionally conduct homa (fire ceremony) and puja rituals. Very beautiful rituals indeed, and there are a few murtis of Krishna and Siva in the centre to this purpose. Strangely enough, almost none of the participants is Hindu. In his book “Yoga for the West”*, Swami Sivananda does not advocate a vegetarian diet. His advice is only to “give up excess of meat-eating and alcohol”. This is a moderate and sensible approach. Nor does he tell Westerners to convert to a different religion or to trade Christian rituals for Hindu ones. He also does not promote meditation on Hindu gods such as Krishna or Siva for Westerners. Here’s what Swami Sivananda writes in his book “Yoga for the West”*: “When you meditate on Lord Jesus, in the beginning, keep His picture in front of you. Look at it with steady gazing without winking the eyelids. Forget the surroundings. Look at the parts of the Lord starting from the feet… Be regular and systematic in meditation”. In other words, Sivananda shares techniques developed by Hindu yogis with people outside India and outside Hin-duism. We in the West can only be grateful to him for that. But he clearly didn’t tell Westerners to become alienated or to deny their own roots, culture or religion. And so I see a contradiction between the teachings of Sivananda for the West on the one hand, and the practice in some centres in the West referring to Swami Sivananda on the other hand. How to explain this? Could it be that over-zealous and overly enthusiastic disciples pressured their Indian teachers in that direction? That is one possibility. Another explana-tion would imply that the swamis were in fact Hindu missionaries with a hidden agenda. Yoga and Vedanta in front, and implicit or covert conversion to Hinduism at the back of the building. The far reaching secularisation of Western societies and the massive disenchantment with institutionalized Christianity cannot be denied, and played a major role in the Eastward shift of millions of Westerners.

The West

Since we enjoy intellectual, social and personal freedom in (more or less) democratic Western societies, we can explore beyond our own culture. In my experience, yoga constitutes a unique discipline that can benefit individuals anywhere, and so it benefits huma-nity at large and be integrated in various cultures. I respect the Indian civilization and I’m eager to learn about and from yoga, Vedanta and the four indigenous Indian religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. But I’m not devoid of identity. Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures got mixed with Christianity and permeated European peoples for the last two thousand years. Remnants of pre-Christian cultures got integrated as well. Latin, Germanic and Slavic languages developed into large families. Our writers, painters, architects, philosophers, scientists, musicians, poets, kings, explorers, priests and saints left us a vast and diverse legacy. Our history was tumultuous at times. The Renaissance, the Reformation and Humanism also contributed to the diversity of Europe’s heritage. We have to acknowledge that totalitarian philosophies, political parties and regimes like Communism and Fascism are also part of the legacy. Looking in the mirror, we have to confront the ugly sides of colonialism, the ominous slave trade and the holocaust as "ours" too. And of course the “West” spread far beyond Europe’s borders, and much of this culture became the world's culture.

A Mature Middle Road

At the heart of his ashram, Sivananda had the tenets of all of the world’s great religions carved into a pillar. The implication is not that Hinduism is superior and should replace the other religions. The implication is, in my understanding, respect for all, appreciation for diversity, and the acknowledgement that the religious and spiritual traditions are complementary and essentially pointing in the same direction. I believe that we can benefit from mutual understanding, now as ever, and that we can learn from each other in East and West, with mutual respect. Yoga can be an antidote to the basic problem of alienation in today’s world. I’m convinced that practicing Swami Sivananda’s precepts for the West, as he clearly explained in his book “Yoga for the West”, is compatible with a balanced lifestyle in a Western context. In doing so, you can remain faithful to your religious homeground and philosophical beliefs.

While carnival and holi last for a short while only, yoga as a holistic discipline, spirituality as a ladder to climb, religion you can rely on, prayer and meditation in the heart are lasting tools for development and liberation. Unity in diversity. No showing off required. 20th February 2013www.sivananda.co.uk/index.html

* Third edition published in 2002 by the Divine Life Society, Himalayas, India.PS : Remarkable / Correction.Around Easter 2013 I get a notification that there's been an Easter Retreat at another centre of the same organization, namely in the Bahamas. I get a very different impression this time. It appears to be a respectful meeting, during which Swami Sivananda is quoted about Lord Jesus, who is seen as a great Yogi. http://sivanandabahamas.org/blog/easter-morning-at-the-retreat/Back to Summary Articles Winter 2013